In the context of olefin polymerization, antistatic agents are also called antifouling agents, activity inhibitors, productivity inhibitors or kinetic modifiers. Antistatic agents can include antistatically acting compounds which have polar functional groups such as acid or ester groups, amine or amide groups or hydroxyl or ether groups. Examples of antistatically acting compounds are polysulfone copolymers, polymeric polyamines, polyalcohols, hydroxyesters of polyalcohols, salts of alkylarylsulfonic acids, polysiloxanes, alkoxyamines, and polyglycol ethers.
Antistatic agents used in the continuous polymerization of olefins can negatively impact the activity of polymerization catalysts and have limited efficiency. There can be issues regarding sheeting and lump formation, including for preparing polyolefins with relatively high molecular weight.